• Denner Shermann - Masters of Evil

I Am Gambit 
with Mike Rapin

When the rantings and ravings of Mike Rapin fill up among his small group of listeners, he turns to the digital pen and paper. Expect nothing less than irrational cries about meaningless anythings and possibly a logical idea here or there, but nonetheless hilarious (for those with a real sense of humor).

Seeing that I am a real technology geek, I think this week I am going to focus around something that has me in the dumps a bit: the merger between BitTorrent, Inc. and uTorrent.

For those who have no idea what BitTorrent, Inc. is or what uTorrent is, let me lay it on the line: 

BitTorrent, Inc. is the company that created the infamous BitTorrent protocol used in the peer-to-peer file sharing. In recent news, BitTorrent has struck a deal with the movie "biz" to distribute movies, but for a price. Seeing that the movie business really couldn't give a shit about it's customers (see also: The Little Man, Deck the Halls, etc.) this can only mean that BitTorrent, Inc. and the BitTorrent protocol is going to get f**ked over. 

uTorrent is the best BitTorrent client available, period. And I am 100% serious about that. In such a small file (approximately 173KB) this program does anything and everything you need to do. For all Windows users (and I seriously mean all) you can have this amazing application working for you in seconds. Developer Ludvig Strigeus honestly cares about the programs he has worked on and definitely those who use his programs. This guy is a real inspiration to me. 

Now, the merger between these two "companies" can not and will not be 100% perfect. Oh no. Not even close. The day that this merger was announced (December 7), die-hard users of uTorrent were expressing their outrage and announcing their leaving the uTorrent community. 

Why you ask? Why would this merger be so bad? Sure, it would mean more money for the people over at uTorrent, but at what cost? Being a Mac guy, I can't run uTorrent (well, natively or without installing Windows on my MacBook) so a merger like this would mean that uTorrent will be available for Mac and Linux (as told in the merger announcement), but do I want to sacrifice the awesomeness of the current uTorrent for some new-and-improved version of the same application with un-removeable ads and other crap built in (see also: Limewire, Kazaa, etc.)? No. I don't. 

For a while there, uTorrent was being worked on to be usable on Mac and Linux, but since the developer left uTorrent nothing has come about. For me and many others, we could have waited for a developer to come about to port uTorrent over to Mac or Linux--hell it could have even been me! 

See, the problem with all of this merger crap is, if you haven't already gotten the picture, that the movie business is going to take BitTorrent by the balls in the near future and seeing that the current BitTorrent client that is distributed by BitTorrent effing sucks, BitTorrent, Inc. is looking for a new and way better client for the movie biz to use and abuse to their liking. Of course, this f**ks over the users because, chances are, some kind of tracker shit is going to be added on to the uTorrent client making illegal downloading near impossible through this client*. 

Now, I may be looking at this all wrong. There could be a real chance that uTorrent gets a real upgrade because of this merger, but my real reason for not liking this is solely because I have a "slight" dislike for the--cue hippie voice--mainstream media--end voice. Unless I see some positive light on this from the "underground" programmers and avid computer users like myself, I will not and can not be for this merger at all given the current state of BitTorrent, Inc.. 

So, for all you techie guys and gals out there who are looking for a BitTorrent client alternative before things get real shady with uTorrent, here are my suggestions:

For Windows:
1. BitComet
2. Azeurus 
3. Halite

For Mac:
1. Transmission
2. Xtorrent
3. Azeurus

For Linux:
1. Azeurus
2. BitTorrent (original Python version)
3. rtorrent

(I know Azeurus is on all three lists, but it's not the best for all operating systems) 

*Mike Rapin does not encourage illegal downloading of any way, shape or form
 

Get more Rapin at MikeRapin.com
 

Cover our ass part: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Thrashpit, Rocknworld, the Iconoclast Entertainment Group, the Pope, George W. Kennedy, soccer moms, pop-punk fans, etc. Note: this rant was slightly censored by the man... only one specific word was altered. You should still know what it is, even with the alteration. If you don't you, you are as bright as a f*cking blackout and should consider sterilization . Love, Big Brother